Very useful! Discussions about website copy often lump all text together as “content”, but clearly this microcopy is more about usability and design than content. That said, the distinctions between all of these labels ultimately break down when you consider how inter-dependent they are.

However, there is a danger that too many words in an attempt to clarify will actually obfuscate. This puts me in mind of an Open University course that had 4 times as many pages devoted to instructions for writing an assignment as were in the original material being studied. Every time a student showed evidence of missing the point, the course directors would add more explanation.

A little goes a long way and maybe best saved for those times when common conventions and user expectations are being tweaked.

We try not to allow our clients the privilege to write their own copy, as we don’t like the wait and the end quality – we have our trusty copywriter do all the hard work and we end up with great stuff!

Marc – some great copywriting articles can be found at www.copyblogger.com . I especially rate their copywriting 101 series for people faced with writing copy for the first time.
Josh Porter’s blog bokardo.com also covers a lot of the design areas where content and design converge.

Dead tree style – the Words that Sell series are classics, and I always recommend Andy Maslen’s ‘Write to Sell’ as a slim volume that packs a lot of good advice in.

Recently I worked on a site where the default error message, to account for anything happening that the developers hadn’t accounted for, was ‘SOMETHING HASGONEWRONG!’.

I think an entire 24ways post could be done revolving around this issue to be honest. The amount of times projects make it all the way through to deployment without anyone outside the tech team even acknowledging that there are things like 500 pages, 404 pages and various error messages that need Design, Usability and IA consideration is ridiculous.

Steerpike – it almost was. I ended cutting out another 1k+ words on just this sort of stuff :)
If the tech teams were able to rely on some better default messages that the Design/UX/IA crowd knew worked than that would be a good start. Like you said, an article for the future perhaps.

what a brilliant article, Relly!
Fantastic advice and beautifully written – I know I’ll be referring a lot of people, colleagues and clients alike, to this :) You really bring home the ‘power of word’ message, so very true and so vital – thanks :)

Although it has other related content in it, so isn’t just about writing style, I’d recommend looking at The Web Style Guide, Chapter 9 (http://www.webstyleguide.com/wsg3/9-editorial-style/). The website is also available as a book, which I find easier to use.

Excellent post and analogy. It is our job as designers and business managers to help the customer through the process. We are the professionals, the consumer is the newbie. As a former hotel/restaurant manager, now e-commerce consultant, I used to preach to employees that they know the product better than the guest. Their job was to gather information and deliver results, ‘tour the menu’ with the new guest, welcome the returning guest back and stun them when you know their name and offer to bring them their favorite drink by name. When I go out, I expect service, do not make me think. Tell me what & how to have the best experience. We have to recognize that on the internet. Everyday we encounter businesses that inconvenience the customer to convenience the business by not eliminating barriers or keeping things simple. If you shop on the net much, then you have an Amazon account (they dont accept paypal), a paypal account, a google shopping account. I guess visa is just Visa is not good enough anymore. I dont shop much on the net, nor do I use paypal. I guard my personal info because what is secure today is not tomorrow. If you don’t tkae by Visa, then you don’t get my sale! Great post, it is too bad this isn’t part of web 101.